Lily and James: The Big Move
by Angela Glad
Summary: Hogwarts is over and Lily and her best friend Anna are looking for somewhere to live. It might not be as easy as they think thanks to four certain boys who have problems with letting go.


Growing up I had always told myself that once I graduated from secondary school ( back when I thought I was going to secondary school just like all the other muggles) I would move away from home and move in with my best friends. I promised myself then that I would under no circumstances live with a boy until we were married. For one obvious reason: boys we gross! OK it was obvious to an eight year old. And then I started dating James, my one true love as sappy as that sounds, at 17 and my parents died and for the first time in my life I thought about moving in with a boy before we got married.

I guess the other Marauders realized what I was thinking because they sat me down one day before graduation just the four of us, no James, and talked to me.

" Remember when you and James started dating?" asked Wormtail. I had started to call them by their nicknames when they started acting serious like this. It was my way of lightening the mood even just in my head.

" Yes…"

" There were rules for you to follow before you took it public." said Moony.

" Right."

"I think you know where we're going here." said Padfoot.

And I did. One of the rules the Marauders gave me when I first started dating James was he was going to move into a flat with them when we all graduated Hogwarts and I was not invited. "I understand." I moaned. They all got up to leave.

" Oh and don't worry we won't tell Prongs this conversation even happened."

That had been several months ago and now that we were all graduated and we were all going our separate ways the day of the big move had come. Anna was so excited. We had talked about being flatmates almost since we met in first year. It only made sense to me for witches to live together. I could not see myself living with a bunch of muggles for example and that had been exactly my frame of mind back then.

Anna and I had been out looking for apartments everywhere. She made me promise that we would not look in Godric Hollow right away just because that's where James and the boys were all going to live. I had promised grudgingly but James had not.

"What do you mean you're thinking about living in Ottery St Catchpole?!" He shouted one morning. I had been staying with them as we tried to find a place to live that was one of the things that the other Marauders had agreed too.

"It's like I told you, Anna and I found a cute little place out there and we both really like it which is a first. We are going back today and then we are going to make our offer." I explained for like the fourth time.

"Out where?" asked Sirius walking into the kitchen in his pjs.

"Ottery St Catchpole." I said taking another sip from my orange juice.

"Wait, replay, what do you mean that you and Anna are thinking about taking a place out in Ottery St Catchpole?" he spewed out the bacon that he had just bitten into.

"Just what I said." I was getting tired of repeating myself.

"But why?" asked Peter who had come in at the same time as Sirius.

"Because she doesn't want the only reason we move somewhere to be because I'm in love with one of the people who already live there." I said bluntly.

"Aw she loves me." cooed James. It's what he always said when I talked about my love for him.

"Shut it Prongs this is serious." Sirius said.

"We know you're talking Padfoot." I joked trying so hard to change the subject.

He sent me the coldest of glares. "Why aren't any of you taking this as seriously as it should be?"

"Taking what seriously?" asked Anna walking in. She had also been staying with us.

"You guys are moving to Otterly St Catchpole!"

"And is there a problem with that? I mean obviously we couldn't all live here forever." She said sitting down and eating a blueberry muffin.

"Well of course not but you guys could buy the apartment next door then we could be neighbors!" said Sirius.

"If this one doesn't go through we might have to consider it. We have looked everywhere and haven't agreed on anything but I'm sure if that next door apartment looked like this one then we would love to movie in." said Anna.

"Interesting." Muttered James.

I turned to him. "Don't even start."

The walk through of the flat was very nice but I was just waiting for that moment when something was going to go wrong. I knew the Marauders and I knew that they would not go down without a fight. Surprisingly it wasn't until we were almost done and about to place our offer that things started going weird.

"Yes, we really like the open kitchen. It makes it easier to store our real big knives." said Anna. I looked over at her surprised. What did she mean real big knives? And the most interesting part was that she didn't even seem to realize that she had said anything weird.

"Big knives?" asked our agen Sherry.

"Yes, our big knives. Don't judge us because we spend our free time differently than you do. Not everyone can be a ballerina for a living!" What the heck was going on? I knew right away that the boys had to be behind it but I couldn't figure out how they were doing it. They wouldn't Imperius her because that was illegal and yet once again she didn't seem to notice that she had said anything weird.

"A ballerina? I am a real estate agent!" Declared Sherry.

"Whatever you say I know your big secret. But just because I know yours doesn't mean that I'm going to tell you ours."

I knew that I should say something but the more that I had thought about it the more that I liked the idea to be next door neighbors with the four boys and I was curious to see where this whole conversation was going to go. Was I a bad friend? Yes, yes I was.

"What secret?! I don't have any secrets! This apartment is just what I said."

"A likely story. I know that there are in fact skeletons in the closet!" Yelled Anna and then the second surprising thing happened, Anna ran to the closet closest to us and threw it open and there sat two skeletons.

"What do you think you're playing at?!" yelled Sherry. She was coming apart and yet I suddenly found that I was trying my hardest not to laugh my head off. "I want you two gone! Gone!" She shouted.

I had to physically drag Anna out of the apartment and as soon as we exited the building she turned to me and perfectly normally she said "What the heck happened in there?"

"Just wait." I said.

We made it back to the flat and I burst in. "Boys!" They all came rushing in looking totally innocent.

"What, darling?" asked James looking the most innocent out of the lot. The only face that I believed was Remus.

"Explain to her what happened." I said before I finally broke down laughing.

"Whatever are you talking about?" asked Sirius.

"Tell her what she said to the real estate agent." I said in between giggles.

"Lils I honestly don't know what Anna said to the real estate agent." said Sirius and then I understood they had probably used some kind of curse to make it so she spoke nonsense and they wouldn't know what would come out.

I took a deep breath and dived into the story. "Are you serious?" asked Anna.

"Yes, I am dead serious." I said for once not making a joke about Sirius's name.

"You guys!" she bellowed taking a threatening step toward them.

"Like I told you the flat next to ours would be the best place for you to live, but you didn't listen." declared James barely even flinching.

Anna turned to me like she hadn't even heard his reply. "Do you think we could call her and tell her what happened and maybe she would still give it to us?"

I was already shaking my head before she finished. "That sounds an awful like the dog stole my homework."

"But in this case the DOG did steal my homework." She emphasized the word dog and she glared at Sirius.

"The apartment next to us…" Peter began but seeing the look that Anna gave him he stopped short. With that Anna stormed out of the room.

I looked at all of them. "Look, if I know her I know this will all blow over by tomorrow but right now just don't mention the flat next door. I'll call that agent for it today and start working on the paperwork just don't tell her okay?" I said.

They all clapped which I felt didn't help their argument very much. As I too exited the room James followed after me. I knew that he was worried about whether or not I was terribly mad at him. I continued up to my room ignoring him.

"Lils?" He finally asked. I turned around smiling. "You're not mad."

"No way. If it was my choice we wouldn't even move out of here at all."

Unfortunately the flat next door was already sold by the time that I called, but that didn't stop the boys. They were somehow aware of all of the flats in the town that were for sale and it wasn't long at all before we had found the perfect apartment for us and that we had closed on it.

I have always been the type of person that when I made a mistake things became easier and somehow knowing I was closer to James and the boys made it just that much more easy.


End file.
